As most of you were able to discover yesterday, the draw for the Nordic Championship 10-Ball in the Men’s, Women’s and U19 Boys’ divisions was made and published together with the full schedule for the event. It is very important that you will share with your players the following information regarding the draw, the schedule and a message from the local host – Oslo Biljardklubb:

1. The draw was performed by myself and the assisting Tournament Director, Ingolf Höns. This is, of course, a slight exaggeration – in reality the draw was created by Cuescore.com, we merely pushed the button. Before the draw was performed all seeded players had already received their respective seeding number.

2. The schedule is, as always, an indication of when a round is supposed to start, but is important to note and to remember the following: a) we may have made an error which will cause necessary changes, and therefore you can assist in two ways – scrutinize the schedule and see if you can find an error (if so, let us know), and be prepared for eventual changes by double-checking that you information still is correct every now and then, b) a round can be started ahead of time, but not more than 30 minutes ahead, which is why all players are expected to be present at the venue no later than 30 minutes prior to their next match according to the schedule, and c) in case the tournament will be delayed for whatever reason it may be that we will have to start matches as soon as tables are becoming available, rather than round by round. Should we be facing such a problem, we will of course make sure that everybody will be informed accordingly.

3. The draw will not be confirmed until after midnight (00:00 / 12:00 PM) Wednesday night, January 31, and provided that all seeded players are still in the tournament. If one or more of the seeded players will announce their withdrawal from the tournament, this may force a new draw. If so, a new and final draw will be made on Thursday February 1, at noon 12:00 AM. Any player, if seeded or not, that announces his/her withdrawal following this, will be treated as a walk-over.

4. As you may have noted already, Ann-Sofie Löfgren and Tuuliina Panula has been granted a later start on Friday evening due to late arrival. This in turn is due to certain changes that were made, that caused us to alter the schedule for the event. This was communicated to the federations, but the players were in part not informed before the damage was done already. In order to buy us the necessary time, we will need to start two of the last round matches in the Men’s division already at 19:45 on Friday evening. In order to settle which two matches can be started early, it would be great to know ahead of time, who of the following seeded players are prepared to play at 19:45 instead of at 21:30 on Friday evening: Andreas Gerwén, Tron Vidar Engebakk, Kasper Kristoffersen, Mats Brujordet Schjetne, Astvaldur Heidrasson, Jani Uski, Matias Sætre, Bahram Lotfy, Vegar Kristiansen, Christian Sparrenlöv Fischer, Sanne Azar, Thomas Larsson, Petri Makkonen, Steinthor Sigurdsson, Jani Siekkinen and Kim Laaksonen. Please notify me as soon as your players have considered this, and do not have a problem playing earlier than scheduled. We will then only have to find out which two players that are winning their 18:00 o’clock round, that are prepared to play again at 19:45.

5. The last message is from the local host – Oslo Biljardklubb. For whatever reason it is not possible for them to accept foreign charge-cards or credit-cards. This means that anything that will be purchased at the counter during the event, must be paid in cash – using Norwegian Crowns (NOK). It will therefore be of importance that all foreign guests will make sure to have Norwegian currency ready and available. It is possible to exchange currency, but also to make a withdrawal of money in Norwegian currency at the airport upon arrival. Oslo Biljardklubb will offer meals, sandwiches and none-alcoholic beverages throughout the event.